Authors, Writers, Publishers, and Book Readers

Interesting article - the end of the paperback era?

I recently came across this article I thought it may be interesting to share...

The full link is below, but here is an excerpt:

"...A survey put out last month by the Association of American Publishers reveals that the era of the paperback may well be over. While net sales revenue for trade hardcover and trade softcover books increased slightly over the three years from 2008 to 2010, at 0.9% and 1.2% respectively, sales of mass-market paperbacks plummeted, down 13.8% at $1.28 billion. In unit terms, net sales for the category were 319 million in 2010, a decline of 16.8% on 2008.

The reason for all of this is not hard to glean. Here’s what the survey said about e-books and other non-physical formats: “e-books have grown from 0.6% of the total Trade market share in 2008 to 6.4% in 2010. While that represents a small amount in the total market for formats, it translates to 1274.1% in publisher net sales revenue year-over-year with total net revenue for 2010 at $878 Million.”

http://dailymaverick.co.za/article/2011-09-06-confirmed-the-end-of-...

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Permalink Reply by Stacy Eaton on September 10, 2011 at 12:26am

Very interesting Damon - thanks for sharing!

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Permalink Reply by Callie Leah on September 12, 2011 at 3:16am

Personally, I've always enjoyed harcovers more due to the fact they're more sturdy and it makes reading in general easier, but I in every way regret the slow demise of paperbacks. To be perfectly honest, paperbacks are more convenient! They of course are more fragile, but they're cheaper, easier to handle, etc. Thank you for sharing the article!

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Permalink Reply by Stacy Eaton on September 12, 2011 at 12:22pm

Callie- I am a hardcover person too. I can't read a mass market paperback even if I wanted to. I'm allergic to the cheap ink they use in it. If I find a book on kindle that I like - and they have it in hardcover - I will buy it to add to my collection.